Capital Economy, Business and Finance
At the start of 2021 Tesla’s market cap was $1.2 trillion and superfans predicted it would go on up because this was a tech company that happened to make cars. Three years on the company has lost more than half its value and most of its shine. High prices and high interest rates are important reasons, but there are three others: high quality Chinese competition at much lower prices, generally woeful roll-out of charging infrastructure across the developed world, and Musk being a moron. It’s hard to think of a business leader who’s built and battered a brand so efficiently in such a short time. Tesla’s Q1 sales were 14 per cent below forecasts, which were already 15 per cent below projections made a year ago. Early adopters have their EVs now. Everyone else is thinking about it, deciding against or buying hybrids. Musk’s only consolation is that his main rival, China’s BYD, posted an even steeper (43 per cent) fall in quarterly sales. At this rate transport stays dirty and 1.5 degrees of warming looks downright delusional.